Chef
Jamian Lewis of De Vere Venues Devonport House, London, United Kingdom
Wins
IACC's Chef of the Year Award in their Copper Skillet Competition

(St.
Louis, MO) -- April 2011 – One of the highlights of the 30th
annual conference of the International Association of Conference
Centres was
the Eighth Annual Copper Skillet Competition which brought together
IACC
conference centre chefs from around the world to compete for the
coveted
Conference Centre Chef of the Year award. Chef Jamian Lewis of
DeVere
Venues Devonport House in Greenwich, England, won the award upon the
approval
of the three prestigious judges. The award was presented by Peter
Stockmann,
(President 3P Business Solutions) President of IACC Americas, and Neil
Pompan,
CMP (Chairman & CEO, Pompan Hospitality Global, Inc.) and President
of IACC
Global.

The three-day annual conference was hosted by The National
Conference Center in Leesburg, VA. Throughout the competition,
conferees
dined on a wide variety of international dishes at stations throughout
the
National Ballroom. Each station featured a recipe that was
provided by
one of the competing chefs.

Judges
from the Washington, DC area included Michael Birchenall, editor of
“Food
Service Monthly” magazine, Chef Steve Mannino, chef at Rustico, and
Peter
Griffiths, MBE, director, Le Salon Culinaire I`nternational de
Londres.
The judges awarded second place to Chef Bjerregaard of Denmark and
third place
to Chef Hall of Canada.

Contestants were given a mystery market basket of fresh produce,
grains and protein ingredients to use in the preparation. Each chef was
given
15 minutes to review the items and plan their dish, and then 30 minutes
for the
cook-off.

The popular Copper Skillet
competition was introduced in 2004 to highlight the artistry and skill
of the
best chefs from IACC-member conference centres around the world and to
honor
their contributions to the shared goal of providing an outstanding
conference
centre experience.

Founded in 1981, the International
Association of Conference Centres is a not-for-profit
organization dedicated to promoting understanding and awareness of the
conference center industry and to giving member properties the tools
necessary
to provide an exceptional meeting experience. Active members meet a set
of
stringent Universal Criteria and agree to a Code of Ethics. Currently,
the
association includes approximately 400 members from the United States,
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, England, The
Netherlands,
Germany and Japan. For more information, visit the website at www.iacconline.org.
IACC =
exceptional meeting experiences.